Friend or Foe?
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[ratings]
Millions of fans poured into the streets in celebration late last week, when the social networking megasite Friendster.com was awarded a patent on managing real-life relationships. Until now, relationships have been difficult to maintain - with no effective friendship tool firmly in place. With the Friendster patent, suddenly that task has become a lot less daunting.
No longer will the phone break-up suffice; people must now go through Friendster to start and stop any kind of relationship. Friendster executives, knowing what’s best for humankind, have vowed to sue the pants off of any friend who thinks they can manage friends without going through Friendster - this includes every aspect of any friendship, either online or in the living room.
On the same day, Friendster announced joint ventures with leading dictionary publishers to officially change the spelling of the word “friend” to “friendster” just to show how serious they are about running your friendships.
Source: Friendster
Domain: BeMyFriendster.com

45 Comments
Richard O'Callaghan : Blogged
January 1st, 1970
at 12:00am
Planet Web 2.0
July 11th, 2006
at 12:55am
[IMG enclose-block-text: yes]from bLaugh Clearly Jonathan Abrams is back. This has his fingerprints all over it. Its part of that ’sue to make profits’ school of thought. Why would anyone have anything to do with Friendster - ever again?
Feld Thoughts: Speaking of Patents
July 11th, 2006
at 11:59am
[...] No – I haven’t read it yet (just the summaries.) Yes – I probably will (read it.) However - until then – Chris Pirillo has the best word on the Friendster patent so far. [...]
The Blame Game ~ Chris Pirillo
July 11th, 2006
at 12:07pm
[...] Okay, bLaugh is up and running - including a great gag on the Friendster patent today. I’ve been using FeedBurner to manage the feed, which has (for the most part) been a good experience. To make bLaugh fully PSP compatible, I had to create enclosures for the comic images - which can only be done with a direct hyperlink to the image itself. In doing so, some of my non-Friendster friends are telling me that two images are showing up in each bLaugh feed item. The reasons are simple: (a) the news aggregator is ignoring the HTML I’ve set to hide the image link from plain view; (b) the news aggregator is rendering the enclosure inline for your convenience, as well as the image that’s pulling in directly via the IMG tag. So is anybody really to blame here? Wish I knew. FeedBurner has allowed me to infuse the Flickr images tagged “bLaugh” with my regular ol’ blog feed - allowing my tens of thousands of subscribers to get the day’s gag without having to subscribe to the separate bLaugh feed. Still, others are saying that my feed in Bloglines is giving them fits. Argh! Can I just blame the dog?! [...]
Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » This says it all
July 11th, 2006
at 12:19pm
[...] from bLaugh [...]
Bennett Haselton
July 11th, 2006
at 12:38pm
Does this mean I can avoid getting stuck in the “friend zone” by invoking patent law?
that would explain Bob… » Blog Archive » Be my Patent
July 11th, 2006
at 1:11pm
[...] Brad sums it up best with this… [...]
Drew - MyBlogLog Communities
July 11th, 2006
at 1:32pm
[...] Chris Pirillo has the best word on the Friendster patent (blaugh.com) [...]
reddit.com: what's new online
July 11th, 2006
at 1:35pm
[...] Friendster issued patent on friendship itself (blaugh.com) [...]
Bag and Baggage - Denise Howell, appellate and intellectual property lawyer
July 12th, 2006
at 12:05am
[IMG Friend Or Foe?] Blaugh’s comic of the day
the ADMIN pages
July 12th, 2006
at 12:16am
living room. On the same day, Friendster announced joint ventures with leading dictionary publishers to officially change the spelling of the word “friend� to “friendster� just to show how serious they are about running your friendships. viabLaugh
Big Dog, Little Dog
July 12th, 2006
at 1:57am
operations of complex adaptive systems, but most of all its about making a new start, with a fresh new paradigmatic framework drawn from a little explored aspect of complexity science, the part Capra has referred to as the systems theories of life. Friendster and Social Network Patent - blaugh Millions of fans poured into the streets in celebration late last week, when the social networking megasite Friendster.com was awarded a patent on managing real-life relationships. Until now, relationships have been difficult to maintain.
Artificial Ignorance - Anand Iyer's Blog
July 12th, 2006
at 4:06am
Friendster, Friendster, make me a friend Couldn’t resist linking to this on blaugh -Friend or Foe. “ai”
Greg Cohn’s Weblog
July 12th, 2006
at 10:22am
Friend or Foe?
skavish: опÑ?ть про голых баб
July 12th, 2006
at 9:18pm
[...] опÑ?ть про голых баб http://blaugh.com/2006/07/11/friend-or-foe/(Post a new comment) Log in now.(Create account, or useOpenID) [...]
Mike Abundo
July 14th, 2006
at 3:35am
Five million Filipinos use Friendster.
I’m telling them to switch to MySpace.
The Mike Abundo Effect
July 14th, 2006
at 11:11am
Five million Filipinos use Friendster. [IMG] We should move to MySpace.
The Mike Abundo Effect
July 14th, 2006
at 11:11am
Five million Filipinos use Friendster. [IMG] We should move to MySpace.
gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": blaugh
July 14th, 2006
at 11:40am
[...] Bonus Link: This recent one of theirs is brilliant. Posted by hugh at July 14, 2006 10:29 AM | TrackBack Comments Post a comment [...]
PixelBud
July 14th, 2006
at 1:59pm
t try to explain it - just look and laugh. My favorite quote… “Meanwhile, Netscape celebrated its 14th user registration.� And for those of you that love gapingvoid, bLaugh has a paraody. ( Bonus: Friendster. ) I use Basecamp for managing all of my web projects and I tend to print out to-do lists and other random things associated with my projects. Basecamp now has a new feature - improved print layouts. You can
Get Elastic eCommerce Blog
July 14th, 2006
at 9:49pm
[IMG E Business Applications] Bonus Link Stash: Ethan Kaplan (Warner Brothers Records’ Director of Technology and editor of REM fan site Murmurs ) Marc Canter - People Aggregator Gnomedex - Chris Pirillo - Tag Jag - Blaugh (Friendster ) Flickr pics - Gnomedex, DogLotion, Gapers Technoratiness: Gnomedex, Doglotion, EBusiness Applications, Get Elastic, Elastic Path, Dave Olson, Andre Charland, Alexei White, Marc Canter
Get Elastic eCommerce Blog
July 14th, 2006
at 9:49pm
[IMG E Business Applications] Bonus Link Stash: Ethan Kaplan (Warner Brothers Records’ Director of Technology and editor of REM fan site Murmurs ) Marc Canter - People Aggregator Gnomedex - Chris Pirillo - Tag Jag - Blaugh (Friendster ) Flickr pics - Gnomedex, DogLotion, Gapers Technoratiness: Gnomedex, Doglotion, EBusiness Applications, Get Elastic, Elastic Path, Dave Olson, Andre Charland, Alexei White, Marc Canter
Elastic Path - Company Blog
July 15th, 2006
at 12:09am
[IMG E Business Applications] Bonus Link Stash: Ethan Kaplan (Warner Brothers Records’ Director of Technology and editor of REM fan site Murmurs ) Marc Canter - People Aggregator Gnomedex - Chris Pirillo - Tag Jag - Blaugh (Friendster ) Flickr pics - Gnomedex, DogLotion, Gapers
David Jacobson's External Insights
July 17th, 2006
at 6:40am
Israeli Patent Attorney (and magician) discusses the copyright implications of removing sex and bad language from films in the IP Factor. The Orange Rag (UK) links to resources from Legal Technology Insider. Have a Blaugh at a cartoon about Friendster.com being awarded a patent on managing real-life relationships. Professional firm management [IMG Danger_annajacobson] Matt Homann at the [non]billable hour discusses
Friendster Has a Sense of Humor ~ Chris Pirillo
July 17th, 2006
at 4:04pm
[...] It didn’t take long for Friendster officials to spot our comic. Instead of sending a cease and desist, they let us set up an Official Profile on their network. I’ve gotta do a little more page pimping, but at least it’s up there for the world to see now. We officially have… 12 profile views right now (and 11 of those were from me hitting the refresh button). At this rate, we’ll rule the social networking galaxy in no time at all. Will you be my Friend(ster)? [...]
Shannon Clark
July 19th, 2006
at 5:28pm
shouldn’t that be “ruining your friendsterships”…?
:)
Shannon
Patently-O: Patent Law Blog:
July 21st, 2006
at 3:58am
[...] Via bLaugh and Denise Howell. [...]
Communications: Amusing cartoon - rather obvious patent
July 25th, 2006
at 11:07pm
[...] Via Patently-O who got it from bLaugh. [...]
www.myspace.com/paducci
July 29th, 2006
at 6:26am
[...] 7/27/2006 5:50 AM .. [...]
Lee Blog: patenting your friends
July 31st, 2006
at 2:09pm
[...] More from blaugh about friendster.com’s patent. Posted by elee at July 31, 2006 01:31 PM Comments Post a comment [...]
eLearning Skinny » Blog Archive » Blackboard adopts a ‘Patent the Obvious and Sue’ Revenue Mode
August 2nd, 2006
at 8:55am
[...] I could go on, but you probably get the gist –– friendster has patented friend relationships reflected in technology –– and now blackboard has patented teacher/student relationships reflected in technology. [...]
A VC: Venture Capital and Technology
August 3rd, 2006
at 11:42am
[...] What bLaugh Needs To Do [...]
Just Mohit
August 6th, 2006
at 3:01pm
“just to show how serious they are about running your friendships”…you mean “ruining” don’t you? ;-)
blog lol at Weblog of Paul Cline
August 30th, 2006
at 7:58am
[...] Filed under: Humor, Blogging, Geek | Tags: Geek, Humor. [...]
Ursula
September 5th, 2006
at 2:05pm
Oh, this is just too funny!
RealTown Communities Bulletin Board
September 8th, 2006
at 10:45pm
[...] Contents Friends Maureen McCabe Friends From: Maureen McCabe Date: July 22, 2006 12:29 am The offlicial cartoon of the blogosphere on ‘friends” http://blaugh.com/2006/07/11/friend-or-foe/ I found Blaugh through the cartoonist site that Sandy Mattingly has on his sticky at the top of his blog…Hugh McLeod (MacLeod?) His pie chart about NY real estate…. Maureen McCabe GRI, e-PRO HER Real Living - Serving Columbus and Central Ohio mailto:Maureen@… direct 614-825-8842 fax 614-888-1126 http://www.ColumbusOhHomes4Sale.com http://MaureenMcCabe.com Visit Columbus Best Blog at http://Maureen.realtownblogs.com Back To Top [...]
Chris Pirillo/blaugh in Wired Magazine » TinyScreenfuls.com
October 5th, 2006
at 10:21am
[...] Saw this little quote/blurb in this month’s dead tree issue of Wired Magazine (October 2006, issues 14.10). Yay Chris! Link to Chris’s blog, and blaugh.com (the blogosphere’s best web comic). Specifically, the Friendster comic mentioned in the article: Related posts: Scientific American is Podcasting Cool - another podcast I’ll subscribe to: Scientific American Magazine PodcastAt least their RSS 2.0 feed has enclosures, [...]Wired News Tries Podcasts, StumblesSaw with interest the other day that Wired News has started releasing podcasts. Cool. I’ll subscribe. Got around to adding the feed to iTunes today, and noticed that while it’s an [...]Wired article on Parallels and VirtualizationInteresting article on Wired on Parallels new VM. They talk throughout the whole article about “virtualization”, as opposed to dual booting, as simply a virtual machine. Nowhere until the very [...]Does AMD have any bloggers?Chris Pirillo’s question got me thinking - does AMD have any of its employees blogging, officially or unofficially? I don’t know of any, and a quick Google turned up no [...]Portland Geek Dinner with Chris PirilloGeek Dinner in Portland (Chris Pirillo)Chris Pirillo, head honcho of Lockergnome and Gnomedex is going to be in Portland this week, and is having a geek dinner on Friday night [...] [...]
Cleaning-up Interfaces with AJAX - Get Elastic podcast #6
November 21st, 2006
at 6:19pm
[...] Ethan Kaplan (Warner Brothers Records’ Director of Technology and editor of REM fan site Murmurs ) Marc Canter - People Aggregator Gnomedex - Chris Pirillo - Tag Jag - Blaugh (Friendster ) Flickr pics - Gnomedex, DogLotion, Gapers [...]
Move My Data
December 17th, 2006
at 8:48am
[...] Give LinkedIn and API cartoon from bLaughAPIs [...]
ThoughtStorms: SocialNetworkingSoftware
January 3rd, 2007
at 8:34am
[...] Patenting IRL friendship? : http://blaugh.com/2006/07/11/friend-or-foe/ DanahBoydOnMySpace [...]
jessica
January 5th, 2007
at 10:53pm
Great one.Could anyone explain me what does this means to an ordinary user who has mutiple accounts in different social network site
AIM Checker
January 28th, 2007
at 6:33pm
lol…very funny :)
Cleaning-up Interfaces with AJAX - Get Elastic #6 - Get Elastic
March 5th, 2007
at 9:10pm
[...] Bonus Link Stash: Ethan Kaplan (Warner Brothers Records’ Director of Technology and editor of REM fan site Murmurs ) Marc Canter - People Aggregator Gnomedex - Chris Pirillo - Tag Jag - Blaugh (Friendster ) Flickr pics - Gnomedex, DogLotion, Gapers [...]
Our social search approach - Part I « CoReap
June 18th, 2007
at 4:41pm
[...] June 18th, 2007 One friday evening, about four months ago, I was discussing about “social networking” with one of my friends over a few drinks in a city pub. Well, we were sitting there talking geek, almost ignoring the real-world social life. We were generally talking about how the whole “social” aspect to “people networking” has blended the six degrees of separation, and how “tag clouds” don’t have a silver lining after all, and how a patent on managing real-life relationships is darn ironical. [...]
Cat
June 29th, 2008
at 4:07am
That is a 5 star rating from me :D